October 16, 2007
Sally Harrington
Media Relations Office
216-433-2037
Sally.V.Harrington@nasa.gov
MEDIA ADVISORY: 07-044
GLENN RESEARCHERS RECEIVE R&D 100 AWARDS
Cleveland -- Researchers at NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland,
have been recognized by the editors of R&D Magazine and a panel of
outside experts for developing products that rank among the top 100
most technologically significant products of the year. Recipients of
the R&D 100 awards will be recognized at an awards banquet on
Thursday, October 18 at Chicago's Navy Pier.
"The prestigious R&D 100 Awards have been known as "The Oscars of
Invention", and the winning of an R&D 100 Award provides a mark of
excellence known as proof that the product is one of the most
innovative ideas of the year," said Dr. Jih Fen Lei, Director of
Glenn's Research and Technology Directorate. "We at Glenn are proud
to lead the agency in this effort."
These prestigious R&D 100 Awards have been helping companies provide
the important initial push a new product needs to compete
successfully in the marketplace.
Dr. Quang-Viet Nguyen of Glenn's Combustion Branch developed a High
Speed Electro-Mechanical Shutter for Imaging Spectrographs. The
patented high-speed shutter technology uses electronically
synchronized slotted wheels (chopper blades) to gate pulses of light
at durations as short as 10 millionths of a second. This short time
gate permits the accurate measurement of very faint light signals
generated by a laser using a technique called Raman scattering. The
Raman scattering measurements in a turbulent flame tell researchers,
among other things, how much fuel and air has burned and what their
temperature is as they burn at a very small location point (about the
size of a pinhead). This multi-faceted data enables the experimental
validation of NASA-developed advanced computer simulations of the
combustor in aircraft gas turbine engines. These computer simulations
are critical tools used to design and build cleaner-burning and more
fuel-efficient aircraft engines of the future.
Dr. Dongming Zhu, Dr. Robert Miller, and Dr. Narottam Bansal, of
Glenn's Structures and Materials Division, were awarded for the
development of Defect Clustering Thermal and Environmental Barrier
Coatings for Si-Based Ceramic Turbine Engine Components. The
multilayered, multifunctional coating systems were developed by
incorporating several revolutionary and patented coating technologies
that have greatly extended the materials temperature capability,
environmental stability and high heat-flux durability of light-weight
silicon-based engine components in combustion environments.
Application of this technology will enable the use of lighter-weight,
higher-temperature-capable silicon-based monolithic ceramic and
composite components in future advanced turbine engines.
An Antenna Near-Field Probe Station Scanner was developed by Dr. Afroz
Zaman, Dr. Richard Lee, Dr. Felix Miranda and Phillip Barr (a co-op
from Purdue University) of the Antenna, Microwave and Optical Systems
Branch; Dr. Kevin Lambert, Analex Corporation; and William Darby, R&D
Labs Technical Branch. Miniaturized and active antennas are difficult
to test in traditional antenna ranges, because of their size,
fragility and the need for DC-bias requirements. This newly developed
scanner is designed to measure radiation patterns of miniature
antennas fabricated on any dielectric substrates as well as
semiconductor wafers. It can also be used to test antennas embedded
in circuits with active devices.
For more information on the R&D 100 Awards on the Web, visit:
http://www.rdmag.com/awards.aspx
For more information on NASA Glenn on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/home/index.html
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